Edouard Vuillard (born November 11, 1868) was a French decorator, printmaker, and painter. This Cuiseaux born artist studied art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris from 1886 to 1888. Vuillard is particularly known for his depictions of intimate interior scenes. In 1889 he joined a group of art students that included Felix Valloton, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Paul Serusier, Pierre Bonnard and Maurice Denis. They called themselves the Nabis, and they drew their inspiration from the paintings by Paul Gauguin, a renowned artist of their time. The Nabis applied their paint in ways that emphasized the flat surface of the canvas and advocated a symbolic approach to color. They were inspired to use strong contours and simplified shapes by the Japanese woodcuts, which were in vogue in Europe by then.
Many of Vuillard’s works dealt with dressmaking and domestic scenes set in his mother’s bourgeois home. He often created flattened space by filling his compositions with the contrasting rich patterns of women’s dresses and wallpaper. Both Bonnard and Vuillard were also called Intimists because of their focus on intimate interior scenes. Apart from painting, Vuillard, was also involved in poster design, book illustration, and designs for the theater. To promote the production of Symbolist plays, he helped found a theater called Aurélien Lugné-Poë’s Théâtre de l’Oeuvre in 1893. Vuillard designed illustrated programs and stage sets. In 1899, Vuillard began to paint in a more naturalistic style. That year, the Nabis exhibited together for the last time. Vuillard also executed two series stunning lithographs that revealed his appreciation of Japanese woodcuts.
